This invention relates generally to electrical distribution devices and more specifically relates to a three phase sub feed lug, stab on design, for tapping out of a three phase load center.
Electrical distribution devices are well known in the art and often include a load center. One of the components of the load center is generally one or more electrical bus bars which are secured to and disposed within a housing. The load center functions to distribute electric power and protect wires/devices from a power supply source to power consuming electrical devices, and more specifically, power is distributed from the electrical bus bars to the individual power consuming devices. Many load centers are characterized as being three phase load centers in that typically there are three spaced bus bars, each bus bar corresponding to and carrying one phase of current.
In order to permit power consuming electrical devices to be connected to the bus bar assembly, connecting hardware is used to connect these electrical devices to the bus bar assembly. The connecting hardware permits the electrical devices to be easily attached and removed from the electric bus bar assembly of the load center. One of the more typically used connecting hardware components is a current carrying stab assembly. For example, the current carrying stab assembly may include a plurality of conducting blades, wherein each individual blade has one end which is electrically interconnected to one of the bus bars and an opposite end which extends away from the respective bus bar and is intended to be received within another electrical component to electrically interconnect the component with the bus bar.
Furthermore, it is also known to provide a single 3.phi. phase tap kit which permits a tap connector to tap into one or more phases of the load center by being mounted onto the load center so that an electrical connection is formed between the tap connector and the corresponding bus bar(s) of the load center. These tap connectors are commonly referred to in the art as a phase sub feed lug accessory. The sub feed lug accessory may comprise a sub feed lug block which taps into one or more phases of the load center. Typically, the sub feed lug block of the prior art is mounted and secured to the load center and electrically interconnected to one or more bus bars by the use of a plurality of fasteners. For example, it is common to mount the sub feed lug block to the load center by securely bolting the sub feed lug block directly to the sides of the load center to form the desired electrical interconnection between the sub feed lug block and one or more bus bars.
One of the associated disadvantages of using the prior sub feed lug accessory is that the commonly used technique to mount the sub feed lug accessory to the load center requires several steps and is time consuming and limits the ease of removing and/or relocating the sub feed lug block on the load center. Subsequent movement or relocation of the sub feed lug block requires the removal of all of the fasteners (e.g., bolts) which are used to mount the sub feed lug block. Thus, this can be a time consuming process and depending upon the location of all of the components, it may de a difficult task. It will be appreciated that a sub feed lug block which is easily mounted to the load center and which permits easy relocation would be desirable in view of the foregoing.